What I Love Most
by TWDGamerKenny'sBro
Summary: LevixHange. When Hange's test subjects Sawney and Bean die, she finds comfort in the least likeliest person - Captain Levi. On that moon lit night, Hange learns what Levi cares about most - but what he confesses is something she never could have expected.


**A/N: I wrote this for a friend. I hope you like it.**

* * *

The sun was high in the clear blue sky, with the occasional fluffy cloud rolling across it. Within Wall Rose stood the Scout Regiment's central base, where all of it's soldiers dwelled. Levi was in his room, gathering up his gear and belongings and laying it out neatly on the desk, just to make sure that it was all there. He was just about finished counting everything up when he heard hurried footsteps coming down the corridor. He knew who those footsteps belonged to almost immediately.

Hange burst into the room without even as much as a knock on the door. Speaking of the door, she may as well have knocked it off its hinges with how much force she ran in with. "Levi!" She exclaimed. Her hair was a mess and her cheeks were flushed pure red. He could tell just by the look on her face that she was in one of her hyperactive moods. He hated it when she was like that.

"What is it, Four Eyes?" He asked dryly. He glanced down at her feet and grimaced when he noticed that she was tracking in mud on his perfectly clean floor.

"I was wondering if you could help me with my experiments on the two Titans we captured in Trost." She replied hurriedly, her mouth going at about a mile a minute.

"No." He refused without even a seconds thought, picking up his cape and folding it neatly.

"Please?" She asked politely.

"No."

"Please? Oh please oh please oh please?" She begged.

"For the last time, no. I'm busy." He told her firmly. He turned away momentarily and put his cape down.

She glanced around the room, her eyes falling upon his gear. "Busy doing what?" She questioned.

"I'm moving out to the Old Castle base at dawn with Eren and my squad. I want to make sure that everything is packed and ready before we go." He explained. "Now get out of my room and leave me alone. Go bother someone else."

"You should really give it a chance, they're actually quite fascinating. There's so much that you could learn from them." Hange told him, completely ignoring his request for her to leave.

"I don't care." He responded.

She ran her hand through her hair and smoothed it out a little "Fine, suit yourself. But you really don't know what you're missing."

"Believe me, I do."

Knowing that she had lost the battle and not because she was being forced to, Hange moved over to the door to leave "I'm sure you'll come round to my way of thinking one day, Levi. You just need a bit more time."

"If I ever start to think like you, then I can definitely say I would have lost my marbles by that point."

"Oh you know just how to flatter me." She responded playfully, before walking out of the room and shutting the door behind her.

Levi rolled his eyes and glanced down at the mud she had brought in on her boots. "Tsk. Damn abnormal." He muttered.

He listened to the sound of her footsteps become fainter and fainter as she went off to pester someone else. The corner of his lip curled up slightly, and he couldn't help but smile to himself as he went about his business. Even after she was long gone, the thought Hange still remained.

* * *

Day was quickly turning to night, with the sun setting on the horizon. It was dusk, and the blue sky was now covered with blacken clouds and a dim orange glow.

Hange was sat within a dimly lit tent, with nothing but a burning lantern for a light source. She was watching the seven meter Titan with keen eyes, who seemed rather active despite having no sunlight to draw energy from. "Whoa, Bean, you sure are a night owl." She commented, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs.

Footsteps could be heard outside of the tent, along with the sound of someone entering behind her. At first, she thought it was Moblit, probably coming to checkup on her, but she quickly came to realise that it was not her executive officer, but someone she never would have expected to be there.

"Hello, Four Eyes." Levi greeted. The Captain was draped in his scout regiment cape, but his gear was absent. She had expected that if he ever were to show up at the experiment area, he would have brought his blades as a precaution.

"Levi! What a pleasant surprise. Are you finally taking an interest in my work?" She asked.

"Hardly." He scoffed. "Moblit needed some nap time and asked me to keep an eye on you. He'd never forgive himself if you somehow managed to get yourself killed by a pinned down Titan while he wasn't on watch. Knowing you and how stupid you can be, getting yourself eaten sounds quite likely."

"Aw, well it's nice to know you care enough about me to come all the way out here."

"The trip wasn't that long." He dismissed her.

"Well, while you're here, would you like me to fill you in on my experiments?" She quizzed.

"No." He responded bluntly.

"Aren't you at least a little bit curious as to why I'm keeping them in a tent and in the dark?" Hange questioned.

"No." He repeated.

"Oh come on, Levi, indulge me, just this once."

Levi walked over to her and stared at the seven meter Titan for a moment, at his glazed over eyes and large toothy grin, before glancing back at Hange, her bright beaming face and wide eyes covered by her glasses "Fine. I'll 'indulge' you." He sighed. "Why are you keeping him in the dark?" He asked.

"I'm so glad you asked!" She exclaimed, acting as if he had asked of his own accord. "Well, from my studies, I have reason to believe that Titans use sunlight in order to make energy. Therefore, without it, they aren't as active as they are in the daytime." She explained "By putting them in this environment, I can fully study their behaviour."

"This one still looks wide awake." He commented, gesturing at the Titan.

"Bean has been awake for about two hours and three quarters, while Sawney, the other Titan, fell asleep after only one hour. I can only assume that the amount of energy they store varies between them, but I also think that Sawney's introverted nature might have something to do with it as well."

"You nicknamed your test subjects?" He questioned. He wasn't all that surprised.

"Of course! I nickname all of my test subjects. I'm sure you've nicknamed some of your cleaning equipment, like your broom or your cloth."

"Yes, I called them 'broom' and 'cloth'." He responded.

"Well that's not very creative." She replied wittily.

She always managed to bounce back. It was mildly irritating, but quarrelling with her was somewhat enjoyable for him.

"Anyway, I've run a few other tests on them. At first, I attempted communication, but neither of them responded, although Bean did have a good go at trying to eat me. Then, I tried to find anymore weak points that could be exploited. Bean reacted badly to being stabbed in the eye, poor thing, while Sawney was completely unaffected and showed no signs of experiencing pain when he was stabbed in the heart." She continued. "I've jotted most of my findings down in this notebook." She added, retrieving the small book from her pocket and showing it to him "I'd be happy to let you read it, it goes into much greater details on my experiments, as well as a few of my past ones too."

"Thanks but no thanks. I'll stick to killing these things and leave the Titan analysis to you." He replied.

"Go on, give it a quick read, you have nothing better to do anyway. It will help you more in combat if you know what makes them tick." Hange insisted, thrusting the book into Levi's hands.

The Captain grunted in discontent as he began to flick through the book, skim reading Hange's notes as she continued to observe Bean, who's eyelids were starting to flutter. _Not long now._ She thought.

"Is there anything you love more than torturing these things?" He questioned, flipping through a few pages.

"I wouldn't call it torture. And anyway, I could ask you the same question. Is there anything you love more than killing Titans and cleaning?"

"I wouldn't say I love doing either of those, but I do like doing them I suppose, so I see your point." He responded. Before he could push her for an answer, he glanced at Bean and noticed that his eyes were now shut and his raspy breathing had died down. "Looks like your friend has finally given in." He commented.

"Hmm. Interesting." She hummed, taking the notebook back off Levi and jotting it down. "Three hours after sunlight was restricted." She murmured, before tucking the book away. "Goodnight Bean." She said, patting the Titan on his huge hand.

She picked up the lantern and led Levi out of the tent. "So that's it for today. Thank you for being my body guard, Levi. And thank you for listening to me talk about my experiments. It's so nice to tell you all of this."

"You're welcome." He replied in an uncaring manner.

"Now, I was hoping you could help me with one more thing."

"And what's that?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Would you be willing to give me permission to conduct a few experiments on Eren?" She asked. "You have been put in charge of him so I thought you'd be the best person to ask."

"You do remember that you're not allowed to dissect him, right? He's not like your pets here, he's a living human being, you can't exactly poke and prod him like you do with these two." He replied.

"I wouldn't dream of experimenting on him like I do with Sawney and Bean!" She cried, looking somewhat offended by the fact that he believed she would do such a thing. "I was thinking we could examine him in his Titan form, of course we'd need to find a way to contain him, but I've already got that covered. We could put him in the old well and ask him to transform-"

"You still have your pets work on. Finish running tests on them before you try to move on to bigger things like Eren and his Titan shapeshifting ability." He interrupted her.

"But if you let me study him then we could find some sort of middle ground, so that you'd be able to cut him out without killing him. He's too valuable to kill if he goes rogue." She argued.

"Focus on your current goal and ask me again some other time. It's not quite up to me, anyway, you'll need to get Eren's permission too and if he says no then... Well, there's not much I can do about that." He told her. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to ride back to base and meet up with my squad. We'll be leaving for the Old Castle base in a few hours." He said, glancing up at the black, moon lit sky. "Goodbye, Four Eyes."

"Don't think this conversation is over. I'm going to need to take a look at Eren sooner or later, whether you like it or not!" Hange called after him.

"Goodbye, Four Eyes." Levi repeated, more firmly this time, and putting an end to the conversation.

"Goodbye, Levi." She responded. She adjusted her glasses and placed her hands on her hips as she watched him walk away "You stubborn bastard." She murmured when he was out of earshot, a smile emerging on her face.

* * *

It was two days later, and Levi, Eren and his squad had settled in nicely at the Old Castle base, especially now that it was all clean.

However, the deaths of Sawney and Bean had only occurred the night before, and the perpetrator was still at large. The Military Police currently had no leads on who had committed the crime, as they had found little to no evidence at the scene. The only thing they had to go was that the killer knew how to use ODM gear, so it had to be a soldier.

Levi was sitting in the great hall, sipping his tea and reading the reports on Sawney and Bean that he had been provided with, while Eren was down in cellar and his squad were fast asleep. He wasn't sure why he was interested in reading up on what had happened to the test subjects, as it was the job of the Military Police to find the murderer, but... Well, he thought he'd do it for Hange's sake. She wasn't taking it too well.

He heard hurried footsteps approaching the door. He remembered Hange bursting into his room a few days before, so he assumed that the person on the other side must of been her, probably coming to weep to him about her dead pets.

He picked up his cup and sipped the hot, steaming liquid as the door was flung open. "What do you want this time, Four-" He began.

"Captain Levi!" Moblit exclaimed.

He could have sworn it was Hange coming to bother him.

"What is it, Moblit?" He asked, turning to face him. The executive officer had pools of sweat dripping down his face, and overall looked rather flustered and panicked.

"It's Section Commander Hange, she's gone! I don't know where she is, and after what happened to the two test subjects- well, who knows what she might be doing!"

Levi placed the reports down on the table and stood up, taking another sip of his tea "Have you looked everywhere?" He asked.

"Everywhere that I could think of." Moblit replied.

Levi thought for a moment as he continued to drink his tea. He remembered Hange mentioning the old well... Perhaps she went there. It's the only lead he had to go on. "Go ready my horse. I think I might know where she is, so I'll go find her and bring her back."

"Are you going alone, sir?" He asked.

"Yes. There's no point rallying up a search party." He finished off his tea and placed the cup on its small dish.

"I'll go get your horse, sir." Moblit declared, turning and running in the direction of the stable.

Levi glanced at the reports and then down at the floor "Dammit, Four Eyes. What are you up to?" He questioned aloud, turning and following after Moblit at a quick pace, grabbing his cape on the way out and throwing it over his shoulders.

He was greeted by the cool night air as soon as he exited the castle. He was impressed by how quickly Moblit had got his horse ready, as he left the stable with his horse in toe only moments after Levi entered the stable area.

"Your horse, sir." Moblit said, handing him the reins.

Levi climbed atop his horse and glanced down at Moblit "Remain here in case she comes back." He ordered.

Moblit nodded in response, and moved aside as Levi kicked his horse and charged out of the stables. Within the span of a few minutes, he had left the castle far behind him and was galloping across the grassy hills, the light from the silver moon acting as his guide.

His horse's nostrils flared as he reached a wood, but he managed to cut through the trees on a small narrow path until he eventually reached his destination. His theory had been corrected, as he spotted Hange kneeling down on the grass beside the old, dry well.

Levi couldn't see Hange's horse anywhere, so he assumed she walked there. He climbed off his own horse and tied it up on a low hanging branch at the edge of the woods before approaching Hange.

"Sawney... Bean..." She whispered. "You were my best test subjects yet... We could have made some really good progress... But now..." She trailed off.

"What are you doing out here, Four Eyes?" Levi questioned.

Her head whipped around and she looked up at Levi with wide, teary eyes "Levi!" She cried, wiping away her tears. "You just keep surprising me. I'm starting to think you can't keep yourself away from me." She teased. He couldn't help but wonder if she was flirting.

"Don't flatter yourself, you know why I'm here."

"Do I?" She questioned. "Maybe you just came out here for a midnight stroll like I did, how am I supposed to know what you're reasoning for being here is when there are so many possibilities?"

"I'm here to make sure you aren't planning anything stupid. You can't just run off like this without telling anyone, Moblit was worried sick. When you do something like this, we might assume the worst, that maybe you scaled the wall to go into Titan territory to capture one of them. I wouldn't put it passed you to do something so insanely stupid."

"Hmm, I never thought about that..." She murmured.

"Don't get any ideas." He warned.

She laughed half-heartedly "I suppose you want the truth." She muttered. "I'm here because I needed some space, to think about Sawney and Bean."

"They were just Titans, Hange. Once you had no further use for them they were going to be killed anyway."

"They weren't just Titans!" She exclaimed. "They were my children, a couple of fine specimens. I could have been close to finally figuring out the Titans secrets, but some soldier had to ruin everything because they had a stupid personal vendetta."

Levi gave her a sympathetic look and knelt down beside her, bringing himself to her level, which was something he wasn't able to do often as she was much taller than him. "You'll find another Titan and you'll get second chance at unlocking there secrets, I'm sure of it." He told her encouragingly.

"I don't want a second chance. I wanted to unlock there secret right here, right now, with Sawney and Bean. Who knows how long I'll have to wait before I get another shot, it took me long enough to get Erwin to give me the go ahead. How long am I going to have to wait before we capture another titan? Weeks? Months? Years? Who's to say the same soldier won't come back and spoil it again?"

"Because we'll find them and stop them." Levi told her.

"I'd like to believe that, but with no leads and no evidence, I don't see how that's possible." She replied.

"We'll make it possible, you'll see. Whoever killed your pets shall be brought to justice, one way or another."

Hange silently stared at Levi for a moment "You're as mysterious as the Titans to me." She commented.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked.

"Well, for starters, you're being nice to me, which isn't normally like you. Secondly, I can never tell what you're thinking or feeling, you're impossible to read. And thirdly, you say one thing but you mean another, I can never tell when you're being straight with me and when you're not." She explained. "I just can't figure you out. But that makes you all the more intriguing."

"Is that how you feel about the Titans too?" He questioned.

"Somewhat." She replied.

Levi glanced down at the grass "The other day you asked me if there was anything I loved more than killing Titans and cleaning, but I never gave you an answer."

"And neither did I."

"Well, to tell you the truth, there is something I love more than those two things. Or should I say someone."

Hange stared at him blankly.

"I've known this person for a while now. At first, I thought they were a pain in the ass. I still think they're a pain in the ass. They're always bothering me and making a mess, doing stupid things and irritating me to no end. But to be honest, I've grown quite fond of them over the time that I've known them. They manage to bring a few rays of sunshine into my life, which I'm thankful for. No matter what, they're always there to cheer me up, even if I don't show it. There's no one else I'd rather fight along side."

Hange looked away from Levi's intense stare "Well, whoever that is they sound great." She commented.

Levi lifted his hand and grabbed Hange's hair, but did not grip it hard enough to hurt her. He pulled on her hair slightly and got her to look at him again. Then he started to chuckle.

Hange had never seen Levi laugh before. It was strange to see him laughing, and somewhat terrifying as well. "For a scientist, you sure can be stupid at times."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She questioned.

"I was talking about you, Hange." He informed her.

He didn't call her Four Eyes or Abnormal. The use of her actual name was such a simple thing and yet it made her quiver with delight.

Levi tugged on Hange's hair and pulled her head towards him. Before she could figure out what he was doing, he closed the gap between them and kissed her on the lips.

Hange stared wide eyed at Levi, unsure of what to do. She never thought of him as a romantic, she never thought he could love someone, especially her. She never thought he would make physical contact with another person like this since he wouldn't know how clean they were. But with all that in mind, there he was, Humanity's Greatest Soldier, declaring his love for her and kissing her on the lips. She could have never seen it coming.

He was quite a good kisser. That was her first observation.

All of her uncertainties faded away and she melted into the kiss. She closed her eyes and pushed against him, leaning deeper into the kiss. She wasn't sure if she should touch him or not, perhaps wrap her arms around his back. Would he like it?

She wanted to test the boundaries. The whole experience was incredible, she had to see what she could and couldn't do. She lifted her hands and ran her fingers through his black hair. He let her.

Levi lifted his hand, the other still gripping Hange's hair, and cradled her cheek as his lips continued to kiss her's.

After what felt like an eternity, but had actually only been a minute, Levi pulled away and let go of Hange's hair. He breathed softly, while Hange panted, as neither of them had come up for air after being lost in the moment.

He then rose to his feet. "The next mission we go on I'll help you capture a Titan. And I'll see what I can do about Eren and testing his Titan ability." Levi stated, carrying on as if nothing ever happened.

Hange was still sitting on the ground breathless "Whoa, hold on a second, what the hell was that?!" She cried.

"It was a kiss, Four Eyes." He told her nonchalantly.

"I know it was a kiss!" She responded. "You love me, since when?" She asked.

He shrugged "I'm not sure when it started. Does it really matter?" He questioned.

"Well, I- but-" she stuttered, flustered and confused.

"Let's head back." He told her, walking over to his horse.

"Wait, aren't you going to ask me if I feel the same way?" She called after him.

He didn't respond. Did he feel like he didn't need to ask, because she had kissed him back? Hange couldn't be sure. She quickly followed him over to his horse, who he was already climbing on. He offered her his hand, which she accepted, and allowed herself to be hoisted up onto his horse and sat behind him.

Once Levi knew she was settled on the saddle, he kicked his horse and began to ride back towards the base. As they galloped through the trees, he felt Hange wrap her arms around his upper body, cupped under his armpits and her hands gripping his shoulders. He then felt her lean closer, her body pressed up against his back and her head resting on his shoulder, her hot breath on his ear.

"I love you too." She whispered softly.


End file.
